Starry Sky
by Cheeseburger of Doom
Summary: [E's Otherwise] Kai is feeling down after a certain incident, because he thinks that Yuki really dislikes him. Although, he's not sure why that matters...
1. Part 1

A/N: E's Otherwise! The beginning takes place right after the events in my favorite episode -- the first episode where Kai-kun cross-dresses, heh. He's so cute in that red dress. The rest of it takes place nowhere in particular...Just odd places throughout the series.

This fic was originally going to be shounen-ai, but the end result is something that merely hints at shounen-ai...Which is a nice change from my usual writing, actually.

I might have some of the names wrong because I watched E's with bad subtitles -- so I'm not even one hundred percent sure about everything that happened either, which may account for some of my errors.

Now that I'm done babbling -- here's the fic! (It's in two parts.)

****

Starry Sky

Part 1

Kai felt like a fool. He'd finally shed the dress that Yuki had forced him to wear. It was flung over a chair, and the wig was in a heap on the floor. He faced the other way; he didn't want to look at them. The entire situation had been terribly embarrassing for him. The worst part of it had been when Yuki had commented that he actually looked cute in the stupid dress. As a joke. A bad joke...

It was too much. He stared gloomily out of the window at the night sky, trying not to think of anything at all.

There was a knock at the door.

"Kai? Can I come in?"

"Yeah."

The door opened, and Yuki poked his head in. "Asuka is worried that you're angry with her for laughing at you," he said.

"No."

"I told her that you weren't. You're angry with me, though, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it because of what happened tonight?"

"Mostly because of the dress," Kai replied.

"I told you that was the only way."

"I know, but why did I have to wear it? You could have worn it just as easily."

"I wouldn't have been able to pull it off like you did."

"Are you saying that I look like a girl?" Kai demanded. He wasn't exactly concerned with being macho or anything -- but for some reason, he felt insulted. He felt like the whole evening had been one huge excuse for Yuki to laugh at him...And it...well, it hurt.

"More than I do, anyway," Yuki replied. "Don't take any of this so seriously! We did what we had to do, and that's all that counts, right?"

"I guess so."

Yuki sighed. "Are you really that upset about it?"

Kai just shrugged.

Yuki entered the room, and sat down beside Kai on his bed. "You really were cute in that, you know."

A slight blush crept across Kai's face. It had been bad enough when Yuki had said that the first time, but this was really pushing it. Okay, so he wanted Yuki to mean that -- but -- it was pretty obvious that it was all a big joke.

"Stop laughing at me," Kai muttered.

"What? I'm not laughing at you. Well, not anymore." Yuki grinned. "I can't help but think it's funny that dressing up a little makes you so flustered."

"Well, I'm not a woman, so dressing up like _that_ isn't something I'm used to!"

"You're just getting more embarrassed now, aren't you?" Yuki said teasingly. "It's so much fun to watch you blush."

An exasperated noise emerged from Kai's throat. Yuki just laughed.

"You have to keep working for me, in exchange for letting you stay here...so get over it already!" He patted Kai on the back, and then he stood, as if he was about to leave.

"You really don't like me much, do you," Kai said quietly.

"What? Well, at first I didn't, but Asuka seems pretty fond of you, so I have no choice but to put up with you, now."

"And that's the only reason, right?"

Yuki blinked. "What?"

"Never mind."

Yuki regarded the moody Kai with a thoughtful expression. "What's with this mood you're in?"

"Why should you care? Weren't you about to leave?"

"Okay, okay. I shouldn't have asked." Yuki paused in the doorway on his way out. "The dress was cute, but I like you better as you are."

That just made the tiny hint of blush reappear on Kai's face.

"It may seem like I don't like you sometimes, but you're not all that bad," Yuki continued. "So don't worry too much about it. If that's even what you're worrying about."

The door closed behind him, and Kai smiled. That was what he'd needed to hear.

He didn't know when it had started, but he did care about what Yuki thought of him. He cared more than he was willing to admit, especially to himself.

~~~~~

As Kai stared out at the night sky, he realized that he spent a lot of time here...It always seemed to be at night, though. The stars in the sky seemed so far away, yet he wanted to try and reach out and touch them, anyway. 

There was a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah."

It was Yuki. It was always Yuki. He felt certain that Asuka cared about him more than Yuki did, but Yuki was always the one coming to his room to cheer him up. Asuka was too shy to enter his room, maybe...Maybe she forced Yuki to do this...

"Asuka is worried about you."

That just confirmed Kai's suspicions. He sighed.

"So am I."

Kai glanced over at the orange-haired Yuki, who was leaning against the door. He made a pretty picture, with his arms folded across his chest like that, a casual and very Yuki-like expression on his face.

"You shouldn't worry about me," Kai said.

"Well, what are we supposed to do when you act all moody? What happened to you while you were gone?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," Kai said. No, he didn't. After seeing some of the things he'd seen in the past few days...He wasn't sure what to think about anything, anymore. 

He'd rescued Raphael and all the children from a fate that he'd thought too terrible -- and the innocence in those two eyes had broken his heart. He knew that he'd always been a little naive himself, but he was learning things about the world, and the way it really was -- how sometimes, things happened, no matter how hard he tried to stop them. He didn't want Raphael to learn lessons like that. 

He'd come across Shinlu again. He hadn't seen her in a long time, and she'd changed. She'd changed so much...She was no longer the sweet girl he remembered, but something different, something twisted...and Shenlong seemed to blame him for her rather crazy state.

Other things had happened, too, and they all lumped together in one swirling whirling mess in his mind, a mess that made him want to curl up into a ball and forget everything all at once.

Kai was so confused about everything...Confused about what he was, confused about _who_ he was.

"I'm sorry if I've been moody, though."

Yuki regarded him with one of those purely Yuki looks, that made him feel small and unimportant. Those kinds of looks only proved to Kai that Yuki really did dislike him...

Kai wondered why he worried about that so much.

"Well, you should be. Asuka's all upset. She thinks you're mad at her." Yuki sighed. "I told her she should know better than that. You never get mad at her."

"How could I?" Kai had to smile. Asuka was such a sweet girl; he'd never be able to get mad at her for anything.

"Hm...It seems to me like you might feel something for her."

Kai was a little startled by Yuki's statement. He was always rather blunt. "She reminds me of my sister."

"Oh. So that's it. I guess I don't have to give you the speech then."

"Speech?"

"Warning you off. Don't touch my sister, and all that."

Kai could just picture Yuki doing exactly that. He had to laugh when his mind conjured up images of Yuki with dripping fangs, holding a rolling pin and chasing him around.

"What's so funny?" Yuki asked suspiciously.

"Oh...nothing."

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything that happened? I don't make these kinds of offers often, you know. I'd prefer not to know what goes on inside that head of yours."

The last remark stung a little. "No. I don't want to talk."

"Fine, but whatever it is that's bothering you is going to eat you alive, if you don't do something about it," Yuki said. 

Kai shrugged.

Yuki left the room, and the door clicked shut behind him.

Kai let out another sigh, and felt a twinge of regret. Maybe he should have taken Yuki up on the offer. It was true that he didn't do that very often.

~~~~~

Kai was having trouble sleeping, so he went out for a late-night walk. Things were going to start happening soon. In fact, they'd already started...

"Kai!"

Kai stopped and turned when he heard the voice calling his name. It was Yuki. 

He made a pretty picture in the moonlight, dressed in dark clothes.

"I heard you go out," he said.

"Oh."

"Mind if I walk with you?"

"It's fine."

They walked for a while in silence. Yuki seemed to be contemplating something. Kai wondered what it could be.

"You seem to think I hate you or something," Yuki said, finally. "I don't, so you should stop thinking like that."

"It's hard to think otherwise, with the way you act sometimes."

"Are you insulting my personality?"

"No, it's not that..."

Yuki laughed at Kai's obvious embarrassment. "I was just teasing you. I know I can be a jerk sometimes, but with everything that's going on, that can't be helped."

"I guess so."

Kai had his hands in his pockets, and he was looking down at the ground. He looked like a little lost puppy.

"Oi, Kai." He lifted Kai's chin with surprisingly gentle fingers. Kai looked surprised at the sudden contact.

"You promised Asuka that you'd bring your sister back and you'd all look at the stars together," Yuki said. "Maybe we should make a promise, too."

"A promise?"

"That we'll walk together like this more often," Yuki said, with a smile. He didn't smile like that very often, Kai knew. Yuki smiled, yes, but not quite like that -- it was a more special sort of smile...

Directed at -- Kai?

"I wouldn't mind," Kai said, feeling a smile come to his own lips. 

"Good. Now let's get back, before Asuka tries to follow us with some food she made for us..."

They both shuddered, and headed back home.

~~~~~

"I wanted to say thank you," Kai said.

"What? We're in the middle of something big here, what could you possibly want to thank me about?" Yuki demanded.

The end was coming closer, Kai could feel it. He'd stumbled into Yuki by accident, in this maze of chaos, and he wanted to say this now, before it was too late...

"I wanted to thank you for taking me in, and taking care of me," Kai said.

"Taking care of you? I just fed you once in a while is all," Yuki said. "This probably isn't a good time for this, either..."

"It's the only time," Kai said. "So thank you."

"Asuka convinced me to let you stay," Yuki said, "But you earned your keep rather well, so I didn't mind in the end."

Kai smiled. "Goodbye."

"Whoa, what's this?" Yuki demanded. "That kind of goodbye is garbage. We have a promise, remember? So don't make it sound like things are ending!"

Kai didn't say what he felt; that things really were ending.

He simply disappeared.

~~~~~


	2. Part 2

A/N: This part here takes place after the ending of the series.

Part 2

Kai hadn't returned for weeks.

It seemed like an eternity since the "final battle" -- or whatever it was. 

Kai's sister was a darling little girl, and Asuka absolutely adored her. She took Hikaru out every night to look at the stars, and they waited for Kai to return. They seemed to be convinced that he would, because he'd promised.

Yuki had already given up hope on the subject. Kai had made him a promise, too, but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to keep it.

He didn't want to hope, really. If he hoped, then he might be disappointed in the end.

He couldn't help sitting in the windowsill sometimes, though, and looking in the direction that Kai would come home in, if he ever did come home...

Yuki couldn't help going into the room that had once been Kai's and sitting on his bed, and staring out the window as Kai had done so often -- and he couldn't help wondering just what Kai had seen in those stars that he'd stared at. All Yuki could see was a fuzzy haze, because for some reason whenever he looked out this way, his vision would blur...

Maybe he had tears in his eyes.

He had to admit that he actually missed Kai. Sure, he'd treated the kid a little roughly sometimes, and he'd genuinely disliked him at first -- because of what he was, but...

Somewhere along the way, Kai had wormed his way into Yuki's heart, and he wasn't going away anytime soon.

It had begun to annoy Yuki that Kai seemed to think so little of himself sometimes -- he'd tried to convince Kai that no, he didn't hate him, but...

He didn't know if Kai had ever gotten that message clearly.

He wondered if he'd ever be able to try and explain it again.

Probably not.

Even the tiny hope he hadn't been able to ignore died out eventually, and he stopped sitting in his windowsill. He stopped waiting for the return of someone who would never come home.

He never stopped trying to see those stars, though.

~~~~~

"Yuki-chan! Yuki-chan! I found something!" Asuka exclaimed. "There's a person...He washed up onshore..."

It seemed a little too familiar. Yuki's heart pounded. He couldn't speak, so he rushed outside to see what Asuka was talking about.

A sad figure had washed up -- a sad figure in tattered clothes that Yuki recognized well...A body that had fine, dark hair; and if those eyes were open, they would be green...

Yuki was dreaming. He had to be. He knelt down and felt for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there.

Kai's heart was still beating in his chest. 

Kai was alive.

He'd come home.

In a truly overdramatic Kai-like way -- but here he was.

~~~~~~

"Where am I?" Kai blinked as offensive bright light bombarded his vision. He tried to sit up, but realized that his whole body hurt. Why...?

Then he remembered everything that had happened. He remembered the fight, the huge explosion of light...

"I thought I was dying," he said.

"I thought you were dead."

Kai started at the sound of the voice. He hadn't realized he wasn't alone.

Yuki was there, by his side.

"Yuki?"

"Welcome home. It took you long enough," Yuki said.

"I...How did I get here?"

"Same way you did the first time. Do you like swimming?"

"I don't remember anything after the explosion. I...I don't know what happened in there," Kai admitted. 

"Doesn't matter," Yuki said. "You're back now, and you're alive. That's all that really counts, right?"

"Yuki?"

"Asuka will be happy you're awake. Oh, and so will someone else." Yuki grinned. "Your sister is really much more charming than you are."

"Hey..."

"Just kidding."

"Kai-kun!"

"Oni-chan!"

Two colorful whirls had appeared in the doorway, and threw themselves at Kai.

"Careful girls, you don't want to kill him now that he's better, do you?"

"Sorry!" they chirped.

"Hikaru..." Kai hugged his younger sister close. So, he'd succeeded in freeing her, at least...

"I'm so glad you're back, Kai-kun!" Asuka exclaimed.

"So am I," Kai said. He wasn't looking at her though, he was looking past her -- at a certain pretty picture, with his arms folded across his chest, not bothering to hide a beautiful smile.

"Okay, you two, I think we should let the patient have his rest now," Yuki said, a little while later. "There's only so much screeching girl a guy can take when he's injured." He shuffled the two girls out the door.

"Get some rest," he said to Kai. "I'll get the doctor to check up on you later. Good night!" 

"Wait...Yuki."

Yuki paused in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"Thank you...again."

"For taking you in and taking care of you, right?"

"And for caring."

Yuki smiled -- that special smile again. "You don't have to thank me for that part."

The door clicked shut behind him.

Kai settled back onto his pillows with a smile on his face, and slipped into a restful sleep.

~~~~~

Yuki sat on the bed that had once been Kai's -- and would soon be Kai's again. He stared out of the window at the stars, and for the first time, he actually saw them. They were really quite beautiful, after all. He still wondered what Kai found so fascinating about them, though.

Now he would have time to ask. He would have time to ask a lot of things -- and make sure that Kai understood a few things, as well.

"Welcome home, Kai," he said aloud. Kai couldn't hear him, but that didn't matter; he'd said it to Kai once already. This time was for his sake.

He was really looking forward to taking more walks with Kai.

~~~~~


End file.
